On the question of paid DU posters during the Democratic Primaries:

[MineralMan]

Some people seem to believe that there are posters on DU who are paid to post. Yet nobody has ever produced any evidence that any such thing occurs. I argue that it does not occur. Here are some of the reasons:

1. DU is not all that influential in the real world.
2. There are plenty of posters who are happy to post their opinions here without being paid.
3. Many posters here are quite coherent, logical and pretty good writers.
4. Professional writers with good skills get paid quite a bit to write for money.
5. See reason 1.

I'm a professional writer. I've been making my living doing that since 1974, and have written for a long list of major publications and have several books under my belt as well. I get paid for the writing I do for money. Here's what I'm doing now:

I write the entire content for small business websites, most with over 100 pages. I write new websites and complete revamps of business websites. I'm good at it and am well paid for my work.

I always refuse to write two types of websites: Pornography sites and political sites. The first, because I think they're exploitative of women. The second, because I never want to be paid to write political material. I've turned down political website contracts a number of times. Websites are all I write for money these days. It's steady work and it's easy. Marketing writing is simple, and I write quickly and get paid well to do that.

I write a lot on DU. I would never accept any money to do that. I do it because I'm very interested in politics, and it is something I enjoy doing. I like discussions. I like arguments. I like writing on DU. But, nobody pays me to do it, and I wouldn't accept payment for it if someone offered.

Unless someone can demonstrate that a DU is paid to post here, I must conclude that nobody is being paid, for the reasons above.

[grasswire]

1. OK, dad. nt

[cali]

36. Yep, more condescension from the op

[cali]

36. Yep, more condescension from the op

[hellofromreddit]

2. Neat.

[PowerToThePeople]

3. MineralMan concludes, it must be true!

trash thread.

[TheDormouse]

5. lol

[berni_mccoy]

7. Thread win.

[TheDormouse]

4. None of your arguments refute that there may be paid propagandists here

(not that I am arguing that there are or there are not)

[HooptieWagon]

6. Where your 'logic' fails:

Brock has publicly announced the hiring of paid trolls, so we know they're present on the Internet. DU is a well-known forum for Democrats, there is no reason to assume Hillary trolls would ignore it during the primary. The trolls aren't being hired for their writing ability, they're hired for their ability to disrupt and cause FUD.

[leftofcool]

8. I can't believe that anyone thinks DU is relevant in the real world.

[snowy owl]

9. People vote. You reach them in places like this. Campaign 101.

[snooper2]

35. Why don't you go to the mall, and ask 500 people if they have heard of this website

Not like I'm going to hold my breath LOL

[MineralMan]

12. Some people appear to think just that, though.

I'm sure there are paid posters for most major campaigns. But, they're charged with posting on active Facebook pages, reddit addresses, and other such social media venues, where many thousands of naive people are reading every day. Pay for such work is really, really crappy, and I've seen calls for writers for commercial businesses and corporations. Someone I'm close to once edited that kind of content mill stuff. It was awful.

The word rates for that kind of social media posting are so low that they appeal only to unskilled writers, for the most part. It's crappy work, all around. I'm familiar with content mill stuff. It's obvious when it appears, really.

[leveymg]

14. DU is relevant in one of the most important ways. Google picks it up

And that's an undisputable fact. At least some of my stuff.

[NurseJackie]

17. Vanity.

And overplaying their hand. They're too wrapped up in it to realize the truth. A disconnect from reality. It's fun, but it ain't all that. If DU went offline because their web server failed, you wouldn't hear about it on the evening news. If facebook went offline for 10 minutes, it would IMMEDIATELY be an item on the CNN scroller/ticker.

[snowy owl]

10. Then why budget $1M towards it? Is Clinton/Brock team stupid?

[MineralMan]

13. They're not spending that on DU. Why would they?

See my list. And $1 million isn't really all that much of a budget, either.

[Eric J in MN]

18. Why anywhere? Tweets are seen by

...a varying number of people and so are posts here.

[JSup]

11. Calling people paid...

...is just a way to reject something that can't be rejected with (known) facts.

Like when I was a teen and people didn't like what I said they called me "long haired commie hippie f*****t".

[Bluenorthwest]

15. It's a subject that makes a handful of DUers froth and freak out and act as if it really, really

matters to them. I think that's very amusing.

[NurseJackie]

16. Nobody that I know has/had ever heard of this place before. Nobody.

Not my husband, not my son or my son in law, nor my "baby" sister or my "little" brother... and ALL of them are much more "out there" and computer savvy than I am. I do have a FB account, but I don't do the Twitter thing (although I know what it is.)

Anyway, my point is... from the perspective of the small fish who live in this coral-reef ecosystem, THIS is the entire world... nothing else exists beyond this reef. But it's just one little reef in a big ocean. A very VERY big BIG ocean.

It's interesting and fun for the people who hang out here, but outside of that NOBODY KNOWS about it. (Figuratively speaking, obviously we know about it.) It's not like this is Facebook or something.

I'll bet Myspace has more active users that DU. (Nothing personal, but this is a very niche market.)

[snowy owl]

19. Hmm...everyone who watches or listens to Hartmann knows about DU

Maybe you don't watch or listen to him? You see, the world is big and there are lots and lots of small groups that make it up. I agree about facebook and reddit being bigger. But small groups are important too. Why all those little meets between candidates and small venues? The more hands you shake, the more people you reach, the more votes you're likely to get.

You guys sound like experts but I don't think you're right. You win votes a few at a time unless you've got name recognition and celebrity. If you don't, you better start shaking hands and if you do, you still bet start shaking hands. Now that's politicking 101.

[MineralMan]

21. Oh, DU gets more hits than Hartmann...

Last edited Sun May 1, 2016, 09:38 AM - Edit history (1)

It's funny that you mention him, really. Cartman is far better known..

[sufrommich]

20. You're wasting your time. These are people who believe that

the first thing you would do if you were going to unleash a secret army of paid trolls is issue a press release announcing it.

[fun n serious]

22. Twitter is a lot less pro Bernie

Since Hill won 4-5. Coincidence, I guess..

[Scuba]

24. A member of the right-wing of the Democratic Party is not paid to post here, so no one does.

If you were better at logic, perhaps you wouldn't represent the right-wing of the Democratic Party.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

25. FYI

http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/democraticunderground.com

[Tarc]

33. I'm sorry, I can't hear you over the sound of my new Lamborghini

*VROOM*VROOM*

[Bob41213]

27. I agree with most of what you say to a point.

BUT I would say that REGARDLESS (and my opinion is meaningless here because I'm not a site owner), it SHOULD be a term of service that one is not a paid contributor.

[Betty Karlson]

28. I know you don't take payment for your OPs on DU:

Your OPs never regurgitate the daily talking points David Brock seeks to introduce. But other posters do. The homogeneity of their OPs and replies leaves us to wonder who is supplying them with these talking points, and what else they receive from the talking-points-generator.

[jack_krass]

29. Agreed. nt.

[Omaha Steve]

30. 1. DU is not all that influential in the real world?

The DU is #5 at raising funds for Bernie. Even our friends at JPR raised $20,000 since December 20th.


FULL long live list here: https://secure.actblue.com/entity/fundraisers/39795

[wryter2000]

31. While I agree with you for the most part

You don't have to be paid to be a troll. Every electronic forum attracts trolls. It was true of one we had where I used to work, and we could even identify the trolls and where they worked. They kept on trolling, anyway, for fun, I guess.

[Octafish]

32. Perhaps one will be good enough to show us their contract?

PDF would be fine.

Is there a reason you can think of why they wouldn't want to show us their contract?

[blue neen]

34. There have been trolls here since the beginnning.

I find it comical that some posters are only pointing their fingers at Hillary or Brock trolls. Doesn't that strike you as a little odd, like look over THERE! There are plenty of trolls pretending to be Democrats, but all the do is slam Democrats day in and day out, year after year.

No one is going to give you the proof you want, Mineral Man. Just open your eyes and you'll get your proof.